The Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche meet tonight in Game 7 of the NHL Playoffs tonight. The game is scheduled for a 9:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on CNBC. Currently the odds for the game have Colorado favored at home.
Minnesota got to five goals in the team's Game 6 victory over Colorado and now have a chance to move to the second round. Both the Avalanche and Wild feel they're good enough to play in the second round of the playoffs this year and tonight's contest will determine who gets to keep playing and who has their season ended.
Patrick Roy's team finished with the most wins in the Western Conference, but with a loss tonight that really won't mean a whole lot. They want to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the second round. Colorado is a very young team and are certainly exceeding expectations. The home team has won each game in this series and Colorado is very comfortable being at home in this one. They finished with 26 victories at home this season while Minnesota captured just 17 road victories.
The Wild made the switch in goal to Darcy Kuemper and he's been excellent with a 1.54 goals against average and stopping more than 93 percent of the shots he has faced in that time. He's won all three games in the series for Minnesota.
Semyon Varlamov has stopped more than 92 percent of the shots he has faced for Colorado. He's been an excellent goalie for the Avalanche all season, winning 41 games (a team record) and will look to continue his stellar play tonight. Yet, the Wild have won two of the last three games in this series and have a bit of momentum heading into this contest tonight.
Maxime Talbot has Stanley Cup experience with the Pittsburgh Penguins and scored twice in Game 7 where the Pens clinched the Cup. His experience has helped the youngsters on the squad.
Both teams are saying the right things, mentioning to reporters that this as just another game. Yet, the losing team won't get to play just another game, so we expect this to be a well-played contest with a lot of emotion. We like the Wild more from a talent perspective, but Colorado is very tough to beat at home this season. The Avalanche are going to squeeze out a close win tonight on their own ice.
Free Pick: Colorado 4, Minnesota 3
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